Really low Idling

I just bought a 95 Sunfire. It acts fine but it takes a few tries to start and when it does start it idles really low like it is about to die. It sounds fine when the car is moving. I dont know what is the problem. Can someone help.

sounds like a bad IAC valve. It's a little solenoid on the side of the throttle body that adjusts airflow at idle and part throttle. They get gummed up and sticky when the car gets older.

sounds like a bad IAC valve. It's a little solenoid on the side of the throttle body that adjusts airflow at idle and part throttle. They get gummed up and sticky when the car gets older.

Hey Richtazz,

is there any quick fix for this, or any type of step by step instruction on how to take it off and maybe clean it, that you might know of ? or would it be just easier to replace the whole IAC valve.

Just to give you a little story, which by the way, I believe I got the same issue and problem. My 97 Sunfire has 308k at this point, yes, a lot :P anyways, just recently, it started to have idle problems, running fine at any speed, but when on a red light it idles very low, once it even died on me. Now, I have changed the air filter, the oil filter, the spark plugs, spark plug wires, and had fuel injectors checked.

Now Looking around, almost everywhere, I don't see any other options but the last thing to do is check the throttle body maybe even clean it, and replace or clean the IAC valve. What do you think on this ?

Regards,

is your sunfire a GT? is it a manual or auto? My Gt idles at about 700rpm, and has no problems when going down the road. Also, if the idle is too low the engine will "chug" like a manual car in too high of a gear, kinda like an out of tune lawn mower. The best thing to do is make a dealer stop for a complete cleaning and look over. Got mine done at 100K and the car runs like the day it came off the lot.